Without getting into the issues whether the U.S. government has the right to inconvenience hundreds of travelers because they have suspicions regarding just one, why on earth did they do this?
Couldn’t they have merely detained the suspicious passenger when they arrived in New York?
Read the last paragraph
Looks like it was BA’s call to turn the plane around.
If they’d got wind of Richard Reid halfway, would you have wanted them to carry on? It’s not just a matter of immigration - if there’s likely identification of a terrorist suspect on a flight, I’d hope they get it down at the nearest airport. (Note that they weren’t yet halfway across the pond, so it seems likely that London was still closer than NY).
If all it was was an immigration issue, then yes, he could have been detained (and no doubt BA would have prefered the fine from this to the huge cost they’ve incurred from the return to London).
As to why Bangor, Maine is safer than New York, who knows? But it looks like a business decision from BA. If the plane had to be diverted to Maine, make a landing, have the FBI or whoever come onboard etc. This is going to delay the aircraft for several hours, disrupting BAs schedules and leave the plane out of sync for a day or two. Turning round avoids both any legal action from the American autourities and puts the plane back at Heathrow ready for the next day’s business.
I guess all that costs less than the delays for several hundres ordinary passengers.
That’s true. And also, had it been necessary to accomodate those passengers for a longer period of time, BA has the facilities available at Heathrow, which it wouldn’t have had at Bangor, Labrador, Reykjavik, or whatever place may have been the bee-line nearest runway.
Another thought - maybe such diversions are now generally taken towards the nearest location where military aircraft can intercept if necessary? (Again thinking of Richard Reid, escorted into Boston by fighters, IIRC.)
As a potential terrorist on a list (where he is still just a passenger on the plane), or after he attempted to down the plane?
Would turning the plane around have stopped Reid? I doubt it.
Bangor ME is the first US airport that most European flights would be near when flying to the US. It is safe because it is the first place they can land in the US before approaching population centers - unless they don’t like moose (or squirrel).
IIRC there was a Washington Post story about the impact of diverted flights to Bangor.
But as far as we know, the guy wasn’t an actual terrorist, just on the “do not fly” list.
Another factor that might have been a factor is that the US authorities might have impounded the plane for a while. Again, the why and for how long are unanswerable. Maybe BA thought that having control of their own airplane was important.
From a passenger comfort standpoint, one’s odds of getting a decent clam roll are probably higher in Bangor, Maine than in Reykjavik or Labrador.